Inching machine



' June 14, 1938. H. T. WHEELER INCHING MACHINE Original Filed Jl lly 18, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 m K m 1 Z 78 2 w H w M r w w 1 4 3 V- my 1 umu7 W BY ATTORNEYS.

June 14, 1938. T. WHEELER v 2,120,304

7 INCHING MAQHI-NE Original Filed July 18, 1932 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORMEYS.

Patented June 14, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1935. Divided andthis application- June 29, 1935, Serial No. 29,130

12 Claims.

My invention relates to a-device for acting'upon strips of flexiblepacking material so as to distort the same from a straight strip to acoiled strip.

This application is a divisional application of my copending applicationSerial No. 623,301, filed July 18, 1932 now Patent-No. 2,006,377, datedJuly 2, 1935.

It is difficult particularly with packing made up of strips of fabric orother pliable material which is folded into layers or pleats to thenstretch or deform this packing so that it will assume a circular orcoiled formation.

It is the object of this invention to provide a device whereby astripofpacking material may be stretched or deformed in passingthrough thedevice so that one edge is made longer than the other and the strip isforced to assumea curved or circular shape.

I desire toprovide a device which will hold the unstretched portion ofthe strip while a short section adjacent thereto may be stretched morestrongly along. one edge into a triangular shape, this operation beingrepeated on successive sections of the strip until the entire strip hasbeen thus treated.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a device of thiskind'which may be easily operated by themanipulation of a single lever.

Itis another object of the invention to provide a holding device for thestrip to be'treated which will automatically grip and release thestrip-as the successive stretching operations are performed by thedevice.

The invention lies in the particular construction and arrangement of theparts making up the complete machine, the structure of which will bemore clearly understood by reference to the.

drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of my device, some parts being broken awayfor greater clearness.

Fig. 1a is a broken detail showing a section of packing and the grippingjaws.

Fig. 2'is a top plan view of the device shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the plane 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a similar section taken on the plane 4-4 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section taken on the plane 55' of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of a strip of flexible material which hasbeen folded to form a plurality of pleats or folds therein, said'stripbeing formed to be acted upon by my machine:

Fig. 7' is a view of a" folded strip of material after it has beentransformed in passing through the device.

In the drawings I have shown my device as mounted upona base I which isapproximately rectangular in shape and. elongated laterally. Upon thisbase are mounted upright posts or supports 2 and 31 The post 2' has, atthe upper end thereof a bearing 4 for a horizontally arranged shaft 5. Asimilar bearing 6 but somewhat more elongated is formed at the upper endof the post 3;

The'sha'ft 5 which is supported in the bearings 4 and 6 is slidable'longitudinally in said bearings. Mounted upon the shaft at a pointspaced from the post 2 isa cam member I. Said camis circular in shapeand has on the side toward the post 2 a plurality of cam faces 8; which,when the shaft is moved toward the post 2, will engage with a rack bar9, fixed upon the upper 1 end of the post 2 by screws ID. The forwardend. of said rack bar is beveled at H, as seen in Fig. 2, so thatwhen itengages with any of the cam faces8-it will tend to cause a rotativemovement of the shaft 5.

At the oppositeend of the shaft are formed a plurality of similar camfaces I2, said cam facesengagingwith a rack bar 13 mounted uponthe-upwardly extending arm M of a bracket I5 securedto the outer faceofthe post 3.

Mounted upon theba'se Iisa sub-base or block l6 which serves as amounting forthe jaws which serve to grip the packing strip. Immediatelyupon the upper surface of the block I6 is a channel ortrough-shapedstationary jaw H, the upper face of which has opposed camfaces [8 which areflared upwardly toengage with a wedging fit with thepacking engaging jaws which cooperate therewith.

At. opposite sides of the stationary jaws I! arelaterallyiextending.bosses I 9, which have openings thereintoreceivelateral trunni'ons or pivot members 2fl-upon the movable jaws2|. This will be seen particularly from-Fig. 4. The said jaws 2| arespacedapart and on the side extending away from said pivot-2ll the jawsinterfit with the downwardly inclined-Walls I8 as seen in dottedlines inFig. 4'. The jaws-2l are spaced apart to include between the same thestrip of packing 22. I provide removable facing members or removablejaws 23 upon the inner sides of the jaws 21, which may be of differentthicknesses -to accommodate. packing witha different number of 1 fold-stherein, as will be obvious. These-removable.facing members 23 areadapted to frictionally engage the packing and hold it firmly betweenthe jaws when said jaws are forced together.

Extending upwardly from the jaws 2| are the arms 24 which arms areconnected at their upper ends to a handle 25. A coiled spring 26 betweenthe arms 24 tends to force the arms and jaws apart so as to allow theinserting between the jaws of the packing material.

Between the arms 24 adjacent the upper end is a block 21 slidablelongitudinally of the arms but movable laterally therewith and which hasan inner recess to fit about a ball-shaped member 28 upon the shaft 5forming a ball and socket connection with said shaft and permitting thesliding of said shaft through the swinging of said lever. It will benoted that the pivot 20 for jaws 2| is offset away from the stationaryjaws I'I so that when the jaws 2| are rocked on the pivot 20 by theswinging of the lever to the right in the direction of the arrow, thesides of the jaws 2| will wedge between the inclined walls l8 of thestationary jaw and be clamped tightly together as soon as this rockingmovement is initiated. Thus the two jaws will be immediately clampedupon the strip of packing material when the lever is operated.

Adjacent the movable jaws 2| are a somewhat similar pair of holding jaws29. Said jaws are tapered at their lower ends, as shown at 30 in Fig. 3,to cooperate with the cam faces of the stationary jaws and it will beseen that when the holding jaws are moved downwardly relative to thestationary jaws the holding jaws will be forced together in clampingposition. I provide removable gripping faces 3| upon the holding jaws,said faces being similar to those employed with the movable jaws.

Mounted upon each of the ends of the jaws 29 is an upright arm 32 which,as seen in Fig. 3, is engaged at its upper end with an axle or trunnion33 upon a roller 34. Said roller is formed with a curved annular recess35 therein to fit against the lower side of the shaft 5. The two arms 32are slidable within a guide member 36 projecting from the side post 3.

There is a coil spring 31 between the arms 32, which tends to force themresiliently apart and because of the engagement of the lower ends of thejaws against the cam faces of the stationary jaws, the said holding jawstogether with the arms thereon tend to be moved upwardly due to thiswedging effect under the action of the spring 31. This action holds theupper roller 34 firmly against the lower side of the shaft 5. To allowthe holding jaws to move upwardly I form a plurality of recesses 39 uponthe shaft 5 into which the roller 34 may be moved when the said recessis translated to a position above said roller. As will be seen from Fig.5, the inner removable facing members 3| upon the holding jaws areprovided with laterally extending flanges 40, which overlap the edges ofthe jaws 29 to a slight extent. The ends of these flanges contact withupright guide posts 4|, between which the packing strip 22 is inserted.

The operation of my device will now be clear. When the packing strip 22has been inserted into position between the holding jaws and the movablejaws the movement of the lever 25 in the direction of the arrow willengage the jaws 2| between the cam faces of the stationary jaws I! andcause them to grip the packing strip. As the jaws 2| are rocked on thepivot 20 they will move through the arc of the circle approximately intothe dotted line position shown in the drawings. The strip of material 22shown in Fig. 1a will thus be stretched along its outer margin but atthe other margin it will remain practically undistorted. As the outermargin is stretched beyond its elastic limit it will not return to itsoriginal form and I thus change the shape of a shortsection of thepacking from a shape with parallel sides to one having approximately atriangular shape, as will be noted in the drawings.

It will be seen that as the shaft approaches the end of its right handmovement, the holding jaws will be released momentarily before the shaftis rotated to move the recess 39 away from the roller 34. This firstmovement of the lever 25 will cause the jaws 2| to act on the packing.The roller will then engage in the recess 39 and release the packingholding jaws 29 so that the packing may move slightly. This movementwill then bring the cam faces 8 of the cam member 7 in contact with thestationary bar 9 and rotate the shaft to a position with the recess 39therein presented away from the roller 34. When the lever is then movedto the left to release the jaws 2| the jaws 29 will still hold the stripof material. At the end of the lefthand movement the cam |2 will engagethe bar l3 and rotate the shaft to present the recess 39 downwardly. Thejaws 29 are held closed during the righthand movement of the lever untilthe recess 39 registers with the roller 34 which allows release of thesaid jaws. When the handle is moved. back again toward the left themovable jaws will release the packing also and assume an open positionready to obtain a new grip on the strip.

It will be obvious that this system of operations can be rapidlyperformed and at each complete cycle of operations a short section ofthe packing strip will be acted upon so as to stretch the upper marginthereof but leave the inner margin practically unaffected. This will,however, bring the packing thus acted upon into the curved shape shownin Figs. 1 and 7. I am thus enabled to take a folded strip of materialsuch as seen in Fig. 6, wherein there are a plurality of pleats or foldsof material and stretch the same along one margin relative to theopposite margin. Considerable force is necessary to do this but with thearrangement shown in my device I am enabled to do this rapidly andeffectively. Strips of material lying in straight folds can be curved tolie in the arc of a circle, thus making up a coil or ring of materialadapted to fit within the ordinary stuffing box. The advantages of thisconstruction will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

What is claimed as new is:

l. A device of the character described comprising a base, spacedstationary jaws on said base, upwardly flaring cam faces on said jaws, apair of holding jaws, downwardly tapered faces thereon to engage betweensaid stationaryjaws, means to move said holding jaws toward saidstationary jaws to gripping position, spring means to move said holdingjaws to releasing position, movable jaws adjacent said holding jawspivoted to swing toward or away from said holding jaws, means on saidmovable jaws to engage said stationary jaws to close said movable jawsas the latter are swung away from said holding jaws and a lever to swingsaid movable jaws.

2. A device of the character described comprising a base, spacedstationary jaws on said base, upwardly flaring cam faces on said jaws, apair of holding jaws, downwardly tapered faces thereon to engage betweensaid stationary jaws, means to move said holding jaws toward saidstationary jaws to gripping position, spring means to move said holdingjaws to releasing position, movable jaws adjacent said holding jawspivoted to swing toward or away from said holding jaws, means on saidmovable jaws to engage said stationary jaws to close said movable jawsas the latter are swung away from said holding jaws and a lever to swingsaid movable jaws, said lever serving to actuate the means for movingsaid holding jaws.

3. A device of the character described comprising a base, spacedupwardly flaring stationary jaws thereon, cam faces on said jaws,holding jaws having tapered ends to engage between said stationary jawsand be forced together thereby, a pair of movable jaws adjacent saidholding jaws, said movable jaws being pivoted to rock toward and awayfrom said holding jaws, beveled lower ends on said movable jaws engagingbetween said stationary jaws to force said movable jaws together whenthey are rocked, and a lever to move both said holding jaws and saidmovable jaws to closed position between said stationary jaws.

4. A device of the character described comprising a base, spacedupwardly flaring stationary jaws thereon, cam faces on said jaws,holding jaws having tapered ends to engage between said stationary jawsand be forced together thereby, a pair of movable jaws adjacent saidholding jaws, said movable jaws being pivoted to rock towardand awayfrom said holding jaws, beveled lower ends on said movable jaws engagingbetween said stationary jaws to force said movable jaws together whenthey are rocked, springs between said holding jaws and between saidmovable jaws to urge said jaws apart, and a lever to move both saidholding jaws and said movable jaws to closed position between saidstationary jaws.

5. A device for stretching packing strips including a base, a troughshaped member having opposed flaring cam jaws fixed to said base, a setof holding jaws movable toward and away from said cam jaws, a springtending to move said holding jaws apart, a shaft to move said holdingjaws toward and between said cam jaws and close the same, movable jawsadjacent said holding jaws, means to move said movable jaws toward andaway from said holding jaws and to stretch a, strip of packing held bysaid holding Jaws.

6. A device for stretching packing strips including a base, a troughshaped member having opposed flaring cam jaws fixed to said base, a setof holding jaws movable toward and. away from said cam jaws, a springtending to move said holding jaws apart, a shaft to move said holdingjaws toward and between said cam jaws and close the same, movable jawsadjacent said holding jaws, means to move said movable j ws.

toward and away from said holding jaws and to stretch a strip 'ofpacking held by said holding jaws, said means acting also to move saidshaft to operate said holding jaws.

7. A device for stretching packing strips including a base, a troughshaped member having opposed flaring cam jaws fixed to said base, a setof holding jaws movable toward and away from said cam jaws, a springtending to move said holding jaws apart, a shaft to move said holdingjaws toward and between said cam jaws, and close the same, said springtending to force said holding jaws away from said cam jaws, and meansadjacent said holding jaws to grip a strip of packing held by saidholding jaws and stretch one edge thereof.

8. In combination, a pair of packing strip holding jaws, a pair ofmovable jaws pivoted adjacent said holding jaws, and means to rock saidmovable jaws to engage and stretch one edge of saidpacking strip to agreater extent than the opposite edge.

9. In combination, a pair of packing strip holding jaws, means to movesaid jaws together to grip said strip, a pair of movable jaws pivotedadjacent said holding jaws, and means to rock said movable jaws toengage and stretch one edge of said packing strip to a greater extentthan the opposite edge.

10. A packing forming device including a pair of packing holding jaws, apair of stretching jaws pivoted to rock toward and away from saidholding jaws, a pair of spaced cam members adapted to be engaged by saidjaws to force said jaws together to grip said strip, a lever to movesaid stretching jaws and means actuated by said lever to hold saidholding jaws in packing gripping position.

11. A packing forming device including a base, stationary jaws thereon,holding jaws mountedto move toward and away from said stationary jaws,movable jaws pivoted to swing relative to said stationary jaws, a leverto swing said movable jaws to engagement between said stationary jaws, ashaft slidable by said lever, means to move said holding jaws to- 1 wardsaid shaft, and recesses in said shaft to mit movement of said holdingjaws to open position, and means responsive to the said shaft to rotatethe same.

HARLEY T. WHEELER- sliding of

